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The Revolutionary Marxists: The Socialist Labour League and International Socialism

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Marxism, Ethics and Politics

Part of the book series: Marx, Engels, and Marxisms ((MAENMA))

Abstract

This chapter discusses MacIntyre’s contributions to two revolutionary Marxist organizations in the late 1950s and 1960s, the Socialist Labour League and International Socialism. It argues that it was as part of both the New Left and these organizations that MacIntyre develops his most significant ideas about Marxism. In particular, the chapter characterizes MacIntyre’s brief period in the SLL as his most politically optimistic, as he began to engage more with the theory and practice of heterodox Trotskyism. His time in IS was characterized by a developing disillusionment with organized Marxist politics, ending in his resignation from IS in 1968. I trace the foundations of MacIntyre’s break with Marxism and discuss some of the key texts which cemented his rejection of Marxism.

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Gregson, J. (2019). The Revolutionary Marxists: The Socialist Labour League and International Socialism. In: Marxism, Ethics and Politics. Marx, Engels, and Marxisms. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03371-2_4

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